


you have not seen everything

by twistedingenue



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Age Regression/De-Aging, Darcy Lewis is Tony Stark's Daughter, Darcy Stark, Gen, Kid Fic, Second Chances
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-22
Updated: 2016-12-14
Packaged: 2018-06-03 17:16:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 9,126
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6619453
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/twistedingenue/pseuds/twistedingenue
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony gets a second chance to watch his daughter grow up, at least temporarily.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

“So how did this happen exactly?” Tony struggled with the tableau before him. Doctor Foster was usually the smallest person in the room, even if her big beautiful brain was the largest. Different brilliance than him — Tony was focused on practical things, explosions on a personal level. Foster set her sights higher, bigger, and more abstract. But right now, Jane isn’t the smallest. That honor belonged to a young girl. Eight? Five? Seven, maybe. Tony isn’t good with ages. Not for the youth. 

“Localized time disturbance field?” Foster offers hesitantly, holding the girl’s hand as the child shies behind her. She peeks out from behind the good astrophysicist, tilting her head so that her hair tumbles in wild, barely managed curls. “Honestly, I have no idea. One minute Darcy and I were talking across the room and the next…”

“Hi,” The girl says, quick and hesitant, taking in everything around her from the safety of Jane Foster’s backside.

Oh shit. “That’s Darcy?” Tony says and involuntarily takes a step forward towards them, towards something he’d only seen in pictures, his daughter — as a child, living and breathing and in the same room as him.

“That’s Darcy,” Jane says, “I wasn’t sure who else to call. I mean, her mother — but I don’t think it would be the same, I mean, if my mom suddenly aged twenty years, I’d freak out worse, but you are —you know— you, and I don’t know if she’d recognize you at all.”

“Ouch. True, but ouch.” Tony says, kneeling down, “I’ll deal with momma if we need to, we don’t know if this is temporary or ….”

“If we get to watch her grow up,” Jane says through a forced smile, “Also, I do not know what to do with children.”

Darcy stares at Tony with a watchful and discerning eye and gradually starts to sway her body, taking Jane’s hand with her, swinging it back and forth. Darcy’s wearing, well, probably the blouse she was wearing, only now it’s dress-sized. 

“Hey Darcy,” Tony says, “You wanna come say hi?”

“You look like the photos in the album mom says she’ll tell me about later. And that I shouldn’t talk to strangers.”

“I look like her babysitter,” Jane says, her eyes wide and shaking her head, “I think she understands that I’m not, but apparently that means I’m not a stranger either. Six year old logic is not my logic.”

Darcy looks at Tony, like really looks, and he can watch her gain her footing. She walks out from behind Jane with her chin held high and proud, “He’s not a stranger?” she asks Jane.

“Not at all, I know your mom,” Tony says, “I have pictures of you as a baby.” Lots of pictures actually. Penny Lewis still sent him copies of Darcy’s baby books and photo albums. Did until Darcy was what, ten? He’d been going through a lot that year, said things he shouldn’t have, didn’t hear from Penny for a couple of years after that. But at six, he had boxes of photos hidden away.

“Miss Jane says that my mom had an emergency and had to go away.” Darcy says — Tony isn’t sure if Darcy really believes what Jane told her.

“It was really good of Miss Jane to stay with you until she could get me.” What the hell, what do you say, what do you do. Tony just keeps thinking — what would Pepper do? Except Pepper is also rather hopeless with children. Pepper would consult some experts and hire someone. So he can’t think of what Pepper would do. He needs the big guns. What would Rhodey do?

Rhodey would shake his head and ask to hold the baby. That is actually what Rhodey did, when Tony dragged him out to Penny’s house in Virginia because she believed Tony should at least see his child before he decided what level of involvement he wanted to have. And Tony couldn’t do it alone. Tony probably shouldn’t do it alone now.

“Auntie Louisa usually watches me. We have purple ice cream.” Darcy says warily.

“Well, Louisa couldn’t be here,” he can’t remember who Louisa is, although he vaguely thinks that Penny had a partner named Louisa for a few years. He could check the photo albums later, “But I’m a good friend of your mom’s and I…” what the hell does he say at this point. Hi kiddo I’m your dad and you are actually twenty-five? “I can take care of you.”

Darcy seems to consider this. It’s amazing how much she looks like her adult self, just squished and smaller and with a larger proportioned head. “Okay, do you have any Barbies?”

Oh yes. He’s calling Rhodey. Like tonight or possibly thirty seconds from now. Rhodey and Pepper and shit, who would be good with kids? What’s he supposed to feed her. Cheeseburgers? Probably she can eat those. Should she? Does Bruce deal with this well?

“I can get you all the barbies you want, Darcy-Lou.” He says absently, the nickname he’d privately given her when he dared to think about her all those years ago slipping out. She giggles at the name, and Jane exhales audibly when Tony holds out his hand and Darcy takes it. 

“Thank goodness, if that didn’t work I was going to have to bring in Thor to babysit while I try to figure this out.” Jane says, swallowing hard, “I’m going to get right on that.” But she looks panicked for a moment, “Shit, she’s the one that knows the filing system.”

Big Guns. What Would — no this one is a Pepper thing. “I’ll have Pepper send you somebody assistant-shaped. And I’ll be back. We have a daycare, I think.”

He knows there’s a daycare. Happy employees are good employees. Happy employees means less corporate espionage and stealing of secrets. He can take care of Darcy and there’s a daycare and they can help while he tries to fix this. Fix Darcy so that she’s back to her old sarcasm and height again.

He needs to call Rhodey. Rhodey has nieces and helps with them sometimes, Rhodey can tell him what he needs. A bed. He’s got a guest room, Darcy looks tall enough to use a real bed. He’s got people who can buy her clothes. He just needs to breathe and keep her fed and her hair brushed. His mom would have never let him out of the house looking like this.

Which is not a place to go to right now, he tells himself. “Why don’t we go check out my place, since you’ll be staying awhile. It’s on the top level here.” And call fucking Rhodey. And Pepper.


	2. Chapter 2

Tony is a guy with a very big brain and a little bit of common sense. Mostly he stores his common sense in other people so he doesn’t have to use up all that valuable brain space. And a little girl running around his penthouse, well that seems to be something that involves a lot of common sense.

“Can you run me through what happened again?” Rhodey says, his voice a little tinny over the speaker, “You have a child?”

“Gumdrop, you know about Darcy. You’ve known the entire time and good job keeping my secrets. But now my kid is a kid again and I avoided this all the first time around and who lets me near any children much less my own?” Tony is trying not to yell, but he fails a little. Because he panics when he’s presented with a kid. Again. Particularly when it’s the same kid.

“Yeah, but Darcy. Darcy was a good kid, wasn’t she?” Rhodey asks, as if he didn’t pour over that whole photo album like a thousand times. He knows Darcy was an interesting child — a little bossy, but she hadn’t come into being brash and upfront until she was much older. “This was before the sarcasm gene switched on, wasn’t it?”

Tony doesn’t know. How can he not know that?

“What are you doing with her anyways?” Ever the practical one, Rhodey is, reminding Tony that he has better problems to worry over than his little freakout.

“She’s taking a nap. In the guest room. I’ve got one of the assistants out buying, I don’t know, clothes and toys or something.” Tony runs his hands through his hair, before slapping them against his thighs, “Crap, Rhodes, do I need to tell her mom?”

“Tony, I am going to be there soon. I gotta wrap up a thing here, kiss my niece goodbye, and fly on over. Don’t do anything too stupid before I get there.”

“So that’s a no on calling Penny, then?”

Tony knows calling Penny Lewis would be a shitty idea. Hi, fling I had over two decades ago, our daughter whom you thought grew up into a moderately successful adult has suddenly turned back into a child and will not understand who you are even if you hadn’t suddenly just aged twenty years in a day. Here. You take care of her. Even Tony knows on an instinctual level that this is bad. Very bad.

It would actually probably be worse than having your daughter, the daughter with whom you have barely been able to really engage with since she’s entered life in the most roundabout way, turn into a five year old in the physics lab you gave to her best friend and boss. Tony’s proud of the way he got Jane to accept his funding. There was a little pleading and a little secret holding, and Jane’s eyes went wide when she realized what Tony was telling her. 

“Tony —“

“Right, nothing stupid. I’ll just let her sleep. Nap? I think at this point in the day it’s a nap. She’s been through a lot today.” Tony rambles and can hear Rhodey’s soft, fond chuckle.

“Tony, if you are letting her nap this late in the day —no man, I think you need to find this one out for yourself. Good luck. Call Pepper, I’ll be there soon. Keep the lights on the landing pad on for me.” Rhodey’s line drops before Tony can response. Really, it was probably the only way the conversation could even go.

Okay. Pepper. He has to tell Pepper. He has to tell Pepper because when she comes back from the wherever her meeting was today (DC? California? Cincinnati?) she’s going to find a tiny accidental girl-child in the penthouse and probably come to some additional conclusions that are just not accurate. He has one child. Only one. He’s pretty positive of that considering what additional measures he took afterwards. Granted, even that isn’t perfectly effective, he’s pretty sure if he fathered another kid, the mother would have let him know. If only for the money.

Pepper’s going to come home and find Darcy, so Tony has to tell her before she lands. Tony has to call her, will himself to say what weird shit happened today and —screw it, he thinks, then directs a call to her cell phone.

“Tony?” Pepper says, “What happened today?”

“You would not believe me if I told you.” He replies. Well that’s bullshit. Pepper, for all her wonderfulness, takes him at his most basic face value, and seems to know how to cut through his embellishment to, yeah, she’ll believe him, “Actually, you will probably believe me, because it’s something you can’t make up.”

Pepper however, understands Tony at some sort of atomic level, and her silence speaks for itself. So sauntering along, Tony says, “You remember Darcy, right. Not very tall, takes after me but idolizes you because she has good taste in role models?”

“What happened to Darcy?” Pepper’s voice drops to a chill, holding back the fire that rages within her, “Tony, is Darcy —“

“Darcy is currently five years old and napping in the guest room. Lab accident? Magic — not that I believe in magic, other than the type that is also science — we aren’t sure yet.”

“I suppose we are lucky that she isn’t in diapers.” Pepper responds evenly, “I would have to poach an au pair from —“

“If we had to poach, we are getting the best, call up the Queen, we’d grab the royal nanny.” This is good, this is calming. If Rhodey knows what to do about a five year old, Pepper knows what to do about Tony. And this is good, because Tony doesn’t know what to do with either.

“There are people in this world who would lose their fortunes to see you change a diaper.”

“That sounds like a terrible charity fundraiser, you can’t organize that.” Tony says, and Pepper sighs. There’s the thing. Pepper …is not a kid person. It was a tradeoff for the life she lives, and one happily made. Tony likes kids, but never knows what’s appropriate with them, certainly his own childhood wasn’t one where —well — it wasn’t normal. It wasn’t even rich kid normal. Pepper grew up with siblings and cousins and somewhere along the line went ”this isn’t for me”.

“You’re working on the problem?” she asks him.

“Of course. Just as soon as Darcy gets settled. We don’t know —if it’s permanent, then we can’t —we won’t, I won’t — the transition has to be seamless. If it’s not permanent, we don’t know how this time affects her when she’s back to normal.”

“I get it Tony.” Those are kind words, with the weight of all the years she’s known him behind them. “Only Darcy…she really does take after you. This shit doesn’t happen to normal people.”

Tony smiles and hopes it is loud enough to be heard, “Ms Potts, I think I love you.”

“Then it’s very good I love you too. And your daughter.”

Pepper will be home soon. Rhodey will be helping soon. Foster is probably already contacting Thor and collecting data. He can relax and look in on Darcy and watch her sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a quick note: I am in an incredibly busy month or so for me, and while I am still writing, it's not my first priority, and I have two fic projects I am actively working on. But I always finish WIPs, so just hit subscribe. It'll be like a little surprise. Like a cupcake.


	3. Chapter 3

Tony doesn’t know what to dress Darcy in. The assistants didn’t know exactly what to buy Darcy either. But there’s princesses and pink and a little purple tutu, and also little tiny pairs of jeans and t-shirts that Tony thinks are the child equivalent of his workshop duds. And Darcy is. Darcy is awake and waiting for Tony to do something.

She’d not slept overnight. In a ratty t-shirt, she wandered around his common room asking questions. Question after question, and very few about her mother or why she was left with a stranger. How often had this happened before? Does he need to have a talk with Penny? Or is this more of a thing with this whole situation that Darcy can take it in stride.

It is after midnight, aren’t children supposed to be asleep right now?

“What does this go to?” Darcy asks, poking at the controls to the penthouse windows. The south bay of windows darken and brighten again. They turn colors, did he program that? Was he drunk? He probably was, let’s be honest. “Wow. Can you open them?”

“Not this high up Darcy.”

“Why.” She says it like a statement, not a question. A declaration of interest, not just mere childish curiosity. She wants to know the why of everything in the room and Tony struggles with it. Tries to explain atmospheric pressure but Darcy just asks what every word means and Tony is not great at “explain like I’m five”, at least, not without an adult level of sarcasm.

“I’m bored.” Darcy flops down on the floor, spreading her arms and legs out like a starfish, “Is it time for movies yet?”

“It’s 2 am, go to sleep.” 

“Sleep is boring,” Well, Tony can’t argue with that. Sleep is boring. If you are asleep, you can’t be tinkering. “I wanna watch a movie. Do you have Stitch?”

What the hell is a Stitch? It is still Two in the morning. Tony doesn’t have enough coffee for this. There’s not enough coffee in the world. 

“No, you should sleep.” He’ll figure out what a Stitch is tomorrow. Pep — no Rhodey will know. Rhodey has the cutest little niece, which Tony will never say out loud, because he’s got an image to maintain here. He doesn’t look forward to Rhodes breaking out the photos. Not one bit. 

Darcy blows a raspberry at him, “I want Stitch.” And runs to a couch and jumps up on the arm. Standing on the edge, she looks out and the long expanse of white, expensive fabric. And does a somersault, sending the t-shirt over her head. She comes out, her little legs unfolding with an expansive giggle that fills the room and sets Tony’s heart all a-stutter.

The giggle turns into a sob, quieter than he would have thought it would be, until it’s not. It’s loud and sniffly and probably not actually about her inability to watch a movie on demand. Tony is paralyzed. When a machines makes this sort of long suffering noise, he knows how to fix that. Or at least how to start. Human girl-child?

Maybe if he just ignores it, it’ll stop. After all, that’s what dad did for him, let him cry himself out and eventually Tony just stopped crying.

He turns on his heel, walking straight towards her and down to the floor in front of Darcy. “Hey kiddo, I’m going to level with you, I’m okay with kids once they get a little older. Eight. Ten. Then I skip those awkward teenaged years because acne offends my core values and also I hate to be reminded of where I got emotionally stunted. So if you could just tell me what’s wrong, I’d feel a lot better.”

“You talk a lot.” Darcy says between little hitching breaths, tears running tracks off of her jaw.

“So I’ve been told. Many times. Do I talk too much for you?”

“No,” Darcy draws out the word until it’s gone and lost.

“Ok, so you are fine. And there’s no reason to cry.” Tony raises his arms up and lets them fall and slap against his legs.

Darcy rolls around above him, smothering a giggle, “ I’m okay.” 

Her emotions turn on a dimes edge, and Tony’s not an idiot, he knows she isn’t fine, but right now, he’ll take it. Darcy collapses against the couch with an over exaggerated and yawns. He’s being appeased right now, Tony is sure of it. “Can we watch something on the TV?” she whines, “It doesn’t have to be Stitch.”

“I still don’t know what Stitch is, but sure.” Tony arranges it so that something child-friendly, age-appropriate and not that exciting is playing, and Darcy….

Darcy stops being shy and holding off at arm’s length, and insists that Tony sit with her. Ten minutes into cartoons and she’s drifted off into sleep, her face smushed against his side, her hair wrapped loosely around her own fingers. She breathes even and soft, a slight little snuffling snore, and doesn’t stir a wink when Tony tentatively puts an arm around her, holds her there like she should have been so many years ago.

It would have gone horribly. He would have been worse than his own father, he didn’t care for anyone except himself and honestly, he didn’t even like himself very much either. It was always the things he created that mattered. He brought death and destruction with most of them — but what he kept private was the life he made. Darcy and the bots, the breathing and the not-breathing lives he’s created. Those were his, no one else needed to know about them.

How much time did he waste? He hid Darcy even from himself. He didn’t get this, not once, while she was growing up. He never got to look in on her while she slept. Or all that much when she was awake.

“I’m going to make this right,” he says, “But just not yet.” He wants to enjoys this for as long as he can.

And then he lets her sleep like that. Sleeping on the couch wasn’t great for him or his back, but hell, worth it.

Now he has to get her dressed like a human being. And not like she’s just fallen off a boat and been rescued. Before Rhodey gets here because Tony really wants to have accomplished something and make it look like he could have been an acceptable parent. Possibly. Maybe with assistance? Instead she’s running around now just in underwear, exploring his suite and trying to get into everything that’s even the least bit dangerous. There is so much dangerous in his home and nothing that explodes is even accessible. It’s just little things and artwork. There are sharp corners at eye level. His little girl is going to poke her eye out on some sculpture that Pepper picked out that may be a stunning representation of the contemporary art scene but also looks like a porcupine and a knife factory had a tragic accident. 

He’s just going to have to wrap Darcy in bubble wrap. If he can catch her. And get clothes on her.

“Here I thought you had your days of half-naked girls in your penthouse behind you.” Rhodey says, closing the door behind him, “At least this one I can approve of.”

Darcy runs up to the door and past Rhodey with a screaming giggle, Tony’s t-shirt fluttering around her knees. “Well, normally, I don’t have a problem with them getting their clothes on and out the door in the morning, either.” Tony laments loudly, “Darcy, stop for a moment, will you?”

She doesn’t, instead running another full circle around the penthouse, jumping and squirming on the edges of her feet before she runs in front of Tony. He holds his arm out, catching her and pulling her in. “Darcy, calm down and say hi to Rhodey.”

“Hi!” Darcy looks at Rhodey without a hit of yesterday’s shyness, “Do you have Stitch?”

Rhodey doesn’t even blink, proving that he is, once again, the better man, because all he says is, “I don’t have Stitch myself, but I bet we could find it. But you have to get dressed first.”

Ten minutes later, Darcy is dressed in leggings and an appropriately sized red tunic. Iron Man red even, because Tony’s assistants know that the color had to at least be an option. Rhodey is a goddamn miracle worker.

“Don’t look at me like that,” Rhodey says, “I helped a little girl pick out clothing. It’s nothing that normal people don’t do every day.”

“Rhodes, I’m not sure you are aware of this, but I am not a normal person.” Tony replies back, “Now what’s this Stitch thing that Darcy has been begging for all night.”

That’s how Tony ends up watching a Disney movie in the middle of the morning, Darcy enthralled with the size of the screen and leaping up to act out her favorite parts, singing Elvis songs alongside a little blue alien posing as a dog.

He needs to go to Foster, get a feel from the science team on where they are at, take a look at the data and start manipulating it. This might be beyond him in the details — might be better left to those who work more with theory and not his practical engineering. But he’s been managing talented people to get results for years, he’s learned when to butt out and not assume his ideas are always the best. Just usually the best. Almost always. Well, there’s always a chance he could be wrong. He should see Foster as soon as he can.

Just….after the movie.


	4. Chapter 4

“Please tell me you brought Darcy with you,” Foster says with a frantic edge, her eyes landing on Tony as he walks through the door.

“Pepper has her. You should see Pepper with her. You have never seen anyone as frazzled as her. Give her a child and she turns into, well, she turns into me. She doesn’t have a clue. I don’t have a clue. We are entirely clueless.” Tony explains, “I think it comes to no one’s shock that I am —“ Tony waves his hand and arm through the air, like it’s bobbing in the water, “about here. But I’ve never progressed much above childhood so you know, there’s a connection there. But Pepper - I don’t think Pepper ever actually was a child, I think she came out of the womb with Louboutins and a clipboard.”

“Breathe, Stark,” Banner calls out from the corner.

“Excuse you. Pepper is wonderful, competent person, and now it is totally clear why she never gave school tours. She’s useless. The only thing that would be worse is if Darcy was in diapers.”

“Do you have her with you?” Jane asks, shutting Tony down. She has a way of doing that that Tony just doesn’t understand. She just opens her mouth and can stop Tony from talking. If he didn’t like her so much, he’d be upset by that. But geniuses are allowed their eccentricities.

“No. I left her with Pepper. Because I get a little thrill whenever Pepper isn’t automatically amazing at something and she could use a challenge. I fully expect there to be an explosion at some point.”

“Why would there be an explosion Tony?” Banner asks from where he hiding that beautiful and smart head of tiny little curls behind a laptop.

“There’s usually an explosion when it involves a Stark. Hopefully, this time it will be metaphorical and not literal.”

“How do you talk with so many words and say very little?” Jane asks, snapping to bring his attention back to her. It would be rude if it weren’t so effective. “Bring her next time. We need to run some tests.”

“What sort of tests?”

“The sort where I do everything I can think of and throw it at the wall and see what sticks. I’m not ruling out magic at this point, which only makes me angry.”

“I don’t like her when she’s angry,” Bruce says, all mock-seriousness, “We’ve ruled out a few things. Strictly speaking, we don’t think it was spontaneous time travel. We don’t think that adult Darcy got switched out. I’m not ruling out something strange in the multiverse.”

“I’m still liking aliens.” Foster explains, holding up a finger when Tony opens his mouth because, yes Jane does like aliens, “We’ve been examining some …artifacts that were sent to us from a field team. Not Asgardian. I just can’t quite get over how much it runs like a plot of a tv show, if it’s true.”

“Real life does resemble fiction more every day,” Tony says, “Can I get a copy of what you have so far? I can look, I can play around with the data, see if I can punch holes. Where are these artifacts”

“Pink glowy things,” Jane points to a cabinet over a workbench. “Don’t touch them, we don’t you to wind up as a kid either. Even if it’s more likely to be an intergalactic toaster and not an age regression device.”

“Who would make an age regression device in the first place?” Banner asks, and it’s obviously an argument they’ve been having over and over again. Jane lays her head in her hands while Bruce gets a fond, gloating expression on his face. “Alien cultures may seem strange to us, but that would be very strange indeed.”

Tony opens the clear front cabinet, and peers at the object. Flat-bottomed, oblong and rounded made with a steel-like metal and crosshatched lines that glow pale pink. It’s a compelling piece of equipment. Foster and Banner have placed it on a tray, so Tony pulls the tray out and sets it on the workbench. There’s a few markings on the artifact that appear to be writing, and on along the shortest side, an indentation, almost spoon like in the way it curves.

He crouches down to peer into it, into the light that shines from within. It’s gentle, more guiding than blinding, so it only takes a moment to realize he’s looking into an interface. “Huh,” he says, “Was there anything that came with this? Some sort of doohickey. Sort of curved?”

Jane gets up, eyebrows knit together. The concentration wrinkles are kind of exhilarating. Science happens when those wrinkles happen. “Maybe. We’d only started working with it when Darcy …shrank. There could be more and we just never saw it because of the commotion.” 

Jane drops to the floor, sweeping her hands under the workbench, and getting on eye level. She is not graceful in her attempt, but she is fast, and she looks up at Tony, “Well?”

“I have people for this sort of thing.”

“My person for this sort of thing is currently eating mac and cheese with Pepper Potts.” Jane huffs, “Start looking Stark, because I need my assistant.”

Something inside Tony scoffs and he just barely catches himself from saying that he kinda needs his little girl. The thought is …intriguing. It’s not what he’d thought he’d think, and that’s a recursive loop. Because he loves the woman Darcy has turned out to be, but oh, his heart beats just a little faster, with a little extra room for something that could be joy, when he handed Darcy over to Pepper. Oh sure, Pepper doesn’t know what to do, but there was an instinctive fondness.

He’s not going to make a little second chance family with Pepper. She’s made that clear and Tony, well, he doesn’t really want that anyways. He has Darcy, and he has plans to bring her into the public eye — if she wants -- and build her a legacy to be proud of, so that she can bear the name Stark without the stench of death about her. 

“Where was she when she…” He asks and Jane points, and he crouches down himself. Neither of them find anything and Bruce is laughing within minutes.

Being so close to the ground, he hears Pepper coming. Not so much from her heels, but from Darcy’s heavier stomp. And then her yelling, and Pepper’s exasperations, and what seems to be a hint of scolding. Darcy stomps louder, yells louder because she is a Stark and that is the appropriate reaction to being told what to do. Pepper says something and Darcy scampers into the room, nearly throwing the door in Pepper’s face. 

“I do NOT want to go to daycare.” Darcy announces, all seriousness and fury, wrapped up in tiny jeans and a t-shirt that says “It’s not all about me. Just mostly” which Tony thinks he could use for himself.

“I told her that she had to choose, play quietly while I finish some paperwork or go play with the kids in daycare downstairs.” Pepper says, regaining her composure. There’s glitter in her hair. Where did that come from? Darcy is completely glitter free.

“I DO NOT WANT TO GO TO DAYCARE.” Darcy yells, and runs not to Tony, but to Jane. She slides into Jane, now sitting upright on the floor, and grabs her by the leg. Jane twists around at the sudden weight, making a soft eeeping noise.

“And yet, you also will not play quietly,” Pepper throws her arms up with a roll of her eyes, “I have copies of financial reports just covered in the remnants of an art kit.”

“Ahh, the glitter.” Tony says, “Hair thingies or sun catcher?”

“She is your child, can’t we just give her a chemistry set?” Pepper groans and realizes the words she has just said, “No wait, I don’t want anything to explode. Anything can explode given proximity to you.”

“Darcy, sweetheart, why don’t you want to go to daycare?” Jane asks in a mild, quiet voice, far lower than the one Darcy was using. 

But it works, Darcy answers in a way that doesn’t burst any eardrums, “Uncle Lonzo says only bad moms take you to daycare and my mom isn’t a bad mom, she’s just not here right now.”

No one moves except to drop their jaws, unsure of what to say. Fuck. That is not what Tony thought the problem was. Who the hell is Uncle Lonzo? Tony checked, Penny has a sister, Louise. No brothers. He thought that would be a good thing to know. Just in case. “Darcy, who is Uncle Lonzo?”

“Mom’s friend. He said that momma should stop working so I didn’t have to go to daycare anymore.” Darcy says. Ahh. A boyfriend. Obviously not one that stuck around for very long. But long enough to make an impression on Darcy.

“Well, Uncle Lonzo isn’t here and he’s wrong. Plenty of good moms take their kids to daycare.” Tony says, “I run a really good daycare so that you can make friends and learn things. If you’d like to go, they’d love you there.”

Tony ignores the incredulous glares. He thinks daycare might be better than the ever-present nannies he had growing up. He was well-cared for, even loved by them, but other kids may have been nice. It wasn’t like Maria Stark was going to take Tony out on a play date. Did they have play dates back then? Chicken pox parties, yes, those he remembers other kids having. But not so much the play dates. Maybe you were supposed to organize those yourself as a child. Tony wasn’t very good with other children, not when he could disassemble things to see how they worked.

Darcy looks up at him, whale eyed and a little hopeful. She even smiles.

Jane butts in on the beautiful moment, “Darcy, before you go, can you help me with a few things?” and Darcy readily agrees with the prospect of doing science with Jane. At least he knows the girl is his, with the way she lights up with curiosity.

Jane runs her tests. She makes Darcy stand still through scans, run around and make noise possibly just to keep her entertained, and a few other things that Tony can’t quite tell if they are for science or for fun. “One last thing, Darcy Louise!” Jane says, “We’re going to look the little parts of you that make up the big you. Now I could poke you with a needle and take blood,” Darcy pins her mouth shut, “But, I think all I need is a run this over the inside of your cheek. And then we can look at it under a microscope tomorrow, okay?”

Darcy agrees and opens her mouth while Jane takes a cheek swab and hands it over to Bruce. Bruce begins prepping the physical samples but finds a moment to gesture over to Tony. “It’s going to take a few days. The cheek swab is the easy part, of course, but some of the scans are —“

Tony waves him off, “Good work takes time. We’ve got it handled. I think. Darcy’s a good kid. I think. I don’t know what a good kid really is, actually, but I think she’s one.”

“She’s a Stark, difficult and worth it.” Pepper says joining the conversation, “Now, we do need to take her down to daycare, because we have meeting and I need your attention focused on your company for a few hours. Let’s go.”

“Such is the life of the working parent. How’s my work/life balance?” Tony jokes, collecting Darcy and lifting her up into his arms, “You okay with daycare now, Darcy-Lou?”

Darcy agrees with only a little hesitation and Tony gives in and changes her position so she’s on his shoulders, and all the way down to the second floor she grins, holding her arms out like she’s flying.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, a big thanks to BluRoux for beta-ing. 
> 
> You can follow me at [ my tumblr](http://twistedingenue.tumblr.com) where I post so many, many things, and cry about writing.


	5. Chapter 5

The thing is, Darcy’s a sweet and independent girl. She’s not the holy terror he always thought she’d be, back in the days where he contemplated being in her life. But he’d been remembering himself, and her circumstances weren’t like his at all. Darcy’s mom loves her, and not in a detached socialite way. Mama Lewis didn’t see Darcy as a legacy to be built and molded in her image.

Penny Lewis dated men and women and loved them, treated them with respect. She didn’t flaunt mistresses. She ditched men who would take her independence and treat Darcy like a thing. Penny Lewis didn’t like it , but she understood why Tony wasn’t in Darcy’s life.

Darcy is sweet, and she laughs so much, and she’s so curious. But then, she asks him, “When do I get to go home?” and she’s so sad, “Is Mama okay? Why can’t she come and get me. It’s not money is it? Mama says we don’t have to worry about that if it’s for me.” And Tony just breaks.

Because this is the sort of thing he’d have a stilted conversation with his Darcy about. Adult Darcy. Who didn’t take his shit but battled with and against him. They weren’t quite sure what kind of family they were supposed to be, so they just ended up being themselves just trussed up next to each other most of the time.

Instead he has to answer Darcy’s questions with, “She’s fine, Darcy, she’s fine.”

“She still wants me, right?” Her eyes go big, and he can hear how her heartbeat quickens when he pulls her close, wraps his arms around me, “Because I don’t have a daddy and if I don’t have Mama, where do I go?”

This has to be fixed. Now. Before Darcy’s racking sobs soak through his shirt. He could call Penny. Try to explain the situation, Darcy could hear her mama’s voice and know she isn’t being abandoned. 

“She’s always going to want you. And you’ll always have us, Darcy. I’ll take care of you.” Tony says, terrified that might actually be true. He holds her until the sobs turn into an echo, and then into soft snores. He doesn’t move. He can’t. He’s pinned in by his words and the deceptively heavy body of his daughter.

“Oh Darcy, I’m glad I didn’t get a chance to screw you up,” he whispers, “I need you back though.”

It’s true. He’s wished for his Darcy. Adult Darcy. He wants to turn to her and ask for her help in the way he knows how, egging her on with a joke and a tease until they together come up with an answer or a way to work together. It’s not been perfect — they’ve stormed out on each other, not spoken for days, stuffing years of being a family into a just few months.

He pulls out his phone, carefully, not disturbing the cautiously sleeping Darcy, and types out a text message to Penny. Strange Situation. Darcy ok. Okay to call?

He doesn’t get a chance to call her. Penny calls him. And to her entire benefit, she only starts laughing when he tells her that their little girl is…well, a little girl again. 

“Oh Tony,” She says between a peels of laughter, a laugh that Tony remembers so clearly, “Tell me you haven’t been trying to do this alone. Darcy was the epitome of it takes a village at that age.”

“I’ve had help, yes. I know I have limitations when it comes to children.” As in, he’s no good with them or for them.

“Fewer than you’d believe.” Penny says in the tone of voice that reminds him of Darcy raising her eyebrow.

He quickly runs through the problem at hand. How worried Darcy is about her, and Penny says he really should have called sooner. Tony knows. He does. He just didn’t want Penny to worry that much when there isn’t anything she can do except worry.

Tony wakes Darcy up, her eyes red from crying and sleep, and tells her that Mama is on the phone. She grabs the phone away from him with a startling quickness and answers it with a hopeful, “Mama?” and then she fills five minutes with a rapid fire of questions and her own explanations of what’s going on at the tower, and she talks about Jane and Pepper and Rhodey and Tony.

“I miss you.” Darcy says, “When do you come back?” He doesn’t hear the answer and when Darcy says love you and goodbye and hands the phone back to him before running off.

“Hey…” Tony says awkwardly.

“That’s just….you know….” Penny chokes out, “I miss my little girl sometimes? I mean, Darcy is an amazing young woman and I’m so glad she’s grown, but I miss my little girl who cuddled and played and didn’t have the weight of the world on her. You are so lucky Tony, so lucky.”

It hadn’t actually occurred to him that Penny would feel this way. That she missed the young years. She got to have them. Okay, she had to have them, since Tony was more or less in the thrall of an addiction to alcohol and terrible life choices, and someone needed to raise Darcy.

“I am, Penny, I am.”

“Take a few photos for me? Oh Tony, tell her. I can hear you doubting yourself from her. Tell her that you’re her daddy. A year from that age and she’ll throw the largest fit of her life begging me to tell her more about her father. Pleading. And I couldn’t. It’s all she wanted and I couldn’t. I couldn’t even lie to her about you.”

“But what if she remembers?” Tony hears himself saying.

“Past me would have thought of something.” Penny assures him, and she was always quick on her feet, “So do it before it’s too late. Don’t deprive yourself of the moment you’ve always wanted. And shut up, you have always wanted it.”

“Reading between the lines of the checks I sent?”

“You wrote them personally. Tell me Tony Stark, is there anything else in life that you’ve written a check for that way, year after year?” When Tony lets the silence fill itself, she continues, “Exactly, Stark. Tell her. Call me anytime.”

Yeah. He will. 

Darcy runs back in the room, a skirt snug on her head, and holding something wrapped in pages ripped from a coloring book and a fistful of crayons. Giggling, she passes Tony to baseball slide down to the hardwood floor and unwrap the pages. She smoothes them out on the floor with whatever she had carried in them.

He gains a lot if he tells her, but it could ruin her life if she remembers as an adult. What would it mean to know both who your father is and that he all but abandoned you? One of the richest and smartest men in the world and a second generation of terrible fathers, there only in name and money.

But this might be a moment out of time for her. Darcy could come back as her time-appropriate self and not remember this strange sleepover. Everyone but her would remember, they would have seen Darcy as a headstrong child and see that even now, Tony couldn’t acknowledge her.

That’s bullshit. Tony isn’t an idiot. He needs to do this, and he needs to do this now.

“It’s not working,” Darcy says, interrupting Tony’s line of thought, “I thought I could get it to work, but it’s not working.”

Tony thought she was coloring, how can that not work, “Do you need some sort of sharpener? I probably have a sharpener?” 

Darcy flies across the room again, “No Tony, this!” and thrusts a smooth, heavy piece of metal into his stomach, along with a piece of paper. “I made a diagram so we can find out what’s wrong.”

Yes this is his child. How could anyone ever doubt.

Tony takes the bundle into his hand. The object is unfamiliar, it doesn’t appear to be like any of the toys they’ve purchased for her. It’s heavy for being so slim, and he’d say that she pulled it from his workshop except it’s not his aesthetic. He loves the sleek and the futuristic, but this has a foreign warmth to it that he couldn’t conceive of.

It’s wholly alien.

“Darcy, what is it supposed to do?” He asks.

Darcy’s eyebrows crinkle in frustration, “It doesn’t fit. It’s supposed to fit and make a noise. But I try to make it go in and nothing happens!”

Yep. His daughter.

“What is it supposed to go in?” He asks.

“That’s what I can’t fix!” 

Tony looks at it again, sitting down with his legs crossed and pulls Darcy into his lap. They will need to head to the labs but he needs to have this. Jane will be overjoyed. But his stomach has bottomed out, and his throat suddenly dry.

“Darcy, hey, can you look at me?” Darcy turns to look up and Tony swallows and isn’t sure how to word this at all. “Has your mom ever talked about your dad?”

“Yeah, she said he was very nice and loves me, but he can’t live with us.”

That’s…charitable. More than he would have guessed from Penny at that time. “She’s right. But…, “ His heart picks up, “Your mom had to keep a secret for me …Darcy, I’m so lucky. I’m your father.”

Darcy blinks a couple of times before her eyes go very wide. As wide as her smile as she grins and wraps her arms around Tony’s neck. “Is that why mama had to go away for a little bit, so I could have a daddy?”

“It was so we could get to know each other better.” He says quietly, brushing his hands down Darcy’s hair and resting his head alongside hers. “I can’t be around all the time, but I love you, and I wanted some time to get to know you.”

Tony could lie and say that Darcy was tearful. That she cried out daddy and snuffled into his neck. In truth, he doesn’t remember what his daughter said or did. Because his mind whited out with the sheer overwhelming sweetness and euphoria of the moment.

“Can we fix it now?” Darcy whines and Tony comes back to himself. He’s still holding the object and yes, he thinks they can fix it now.

“I think Jane might be able to help us, do you want to go and see her?” Tony asks, his heart full and not ready to think of what comes next. Darcy nods and he stands up, picking her up and carrying her — not wanting to lose the connection between them and hold onto her for just a few minutes more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The end is nigh! The End is Nigh!  
> Thanks again to bluroux for a wonderful beta read.
> 
> As always, you can find me at [ my tumblr](http://twistedingenue.tumblr.com)


	6. Chapter 6

Tony is never going to get the image out of his head. His little Darcy running into the lab with the object, bypassing Jane, bypassing Bruce and going straight to the artifact. He called out, asking for her to slow down and wait for him… but she keeps insisting that she’s going to fix it and…

And…

The artifact paused the room. It was the only way to describe the feeling, the hiccup in time, a jolt from one second to the next one over. When the world moved in time correctly again, the artifact lay in pieces, Darcy’s object shattered on the floor and…and there’s Darcy, all grown up and looking very cold and mostly undressed, her child-sized clothes not making the transition.

“Oh. My god.” Darcy says, “What …oh god, don’t look over her, no don’t. Ugh, Jane, where’s the emergency clothes?” she struggles to cover up, and Tony has to look away. Daughter, daughter, daughter. Should not be naked. And yet.

Jane runs past with what looks like a giant blue sheet and hands it to Darcy. It miraculously turns into some a tube of fabric, and then a dress with a chevron stripe.

“That was weird,” Darcy says and looks at Tony, then her eyes dart here and there and can’t meet his again. And she runs out, just as quick as his little girl ran in.

Tony doesn’t see her for three days, and in that time he’s found this hole in his heart. It’s clearly labeled “Darcy’s Childhood” and he wishes he could have filled it more.  He calls Penny, who sighs in relief.

“It’s not that I didn’t want to see my child again,” Penny says, “But I didn’t want her to grow up again. It was hard enough the first time. Doing it twice would be torture. For all of us.”

“Yeah, for all of us.” He doesn’t bother to hide the dejection in his voice.

“Tony. You got to have Darcy for the perfect amount of time. A vacation. You showed up, gave her gifts and new clothes and a big beautiful playhouse to run around in. You didn’t have to take her to school, you didn’t have to stare down Aggie Marie Sutherland in the fifth grade because her darling son made fun of Darcy for wearing a bra. You didn’t pick her up, wasted from a party and chauffeur her equally trashed friends around for a month straight.” Penny ramps up and pitches anger and Tony stunningly remembers why he stayed away. “You didn’t have to deal with any of that. And kids these days? With the internet hate machine at their disposal? It would be worse.”

“I’d protect her!” Tony struggles not to yell. At least not loudly, “I’d protect her. I did before.”

“You did Tony, the best way possible. You let her live her life. And it’s been a great one, and you are being a good father now. Just don’t … don’t wish for that. Enjoy what you have now. Be grateful you didn’t have to live through five days of screaming when she was four.”

“That sounds exhausting,” Tony replies, aghast.

“It was. I nearly drove to Malibu to leave her on your doorstep with a note.”

Tony chokes on that, and yes, that would not have gone well. On the other hand, it probably would have spurned a new AI to care for Darcy. Or he would have handed her to Rhodey and tell him to fix it. Emotions were entirely his problem.

No it would have been worse. He trusted Obie then. That would have been worse.

They chat for a few minutes and he promises that he’ll send any photos from anyone’s phones. And Penny thanks Tony. Thanks him. Thanks him for giving her Darcy in the first place.

It’s strange.

 

* * *

 

It’s still strange. Darcy retreated to her room for several days, keeping in contact through the building and with Jane, just saying she needed a little time to readjust. Because that’s not ominous. When she does emerge, she can’t seem to look Tony in the eye without going either a little bit pink or ducking her head too quickly for it to be accidental.

She’s got a right to try to work things out but Tony is still himself after all this. He’s curious. He wants to know everything. Did it hurt? Where did Adult Darcy go? How much does she remember? Did her timeline change at all?

Is everything the same except that she grew up knowing who Tony was and that he loved her even then?Or does she remember nothing, and there’s just a blank space where this whole experience should be? What would be worse?

Tony gets on with his standard coping mechanisms and heads down to the lab to live off of caffeine, sugar, and whatever concoction Dummy provides for him every four hours. He doesn’t sleep. But this is fine and this is normal.

He doesn’t notice that Darcy has snuck down there after in his twelfth hour until it is almost fourteen, and he’s debating being knee-deep in machine guts, or eyeballs-deep in code for the next few hours. Perhaps he could finally master how to do both.

“Two hours until you noticed me, it’s a record. Usually it’s four, and I bring my tablet and do the weeks scheduling.”

“Well at least someone does some work around here. The past week or so, it’s just been playtime all the time. Except for Pepper. She always seemed to have a meeting.” It’s his lab, he keeps a bottle or two of pretty much everything around here somewhere.  Darcy favors whiskey, which is stored in a toolbox and the glasses are on a shelf near the bench. He lifts up the bottle.

“Just a little,” Darcy says as he pours, “I’m not entirely certain how old I am right now. I am over twenty one, right?”

“For several years now,” he holds the glass out and Darcy accepts, “So….How?”

“You know deja-vu? It’s not like that at all. I don’t look around the tower and think that I was here for a few weeks when I six. But at the same time, I have two sets of memories, but one obviously never happened. They don’t affect each other.” Darcy looks down at her hands and her drink, “It’s like an echo. Imperfect and distorted, like but unlike the original.”

“So word vomit runs in the family,” Tony says, “Nothing bled through?”

“Nothing. I don’t have memory of these memories until I was the right age again. And that’s incredibly confusing and it makes my brain hurt.” She holds up her glass, “As if I needed another reason to drink.”

“Well, you shouldn’t, we Starks tend towards alcoholism,” Tony says, “Also, grandstanding heroics and meandering morals and ethics.”

“Yeah, well, good thing I grew up a Lewis.” Darcy responds, lightly teasing, “But hey, turns out you might not have been a bad influence.”

“I would have been. Now, sure, I could piece myself together for you. Then?” Tony shrugs off his terribleness, “Never. I was too caught up in being Tony Stark to be a good father. Better to be an absent one.”

It takes Darcy a few moments to answer, but she does by pressing a kiss to his cheek. “I got a great dad, who gave what he could then, and would move mountains now. But please don’t move any mountains, that’s going to venture into Evil Genius territory, and I’m waiting for Jane to take on that mantle, okay? She’s going to crack someday and then I get to move up the ladder from assistant to lead henchman.”

“That’s going to look great on your Linkedin. You’ll get all of the recruiters.”

“Ha, my loyalty is genetic too.” Darcy smiles, “So what are we working on today, Tony?”

“You wanna code or do you want to muck around with the suit?” Tony asks, and with Darcy’s answering grin, which probably means she wants to hack something, he sees that he hasn’t lost his little girl at all. Not one bit. She’s right there with him.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again, a big thank you to bluroux for her beta work. All remaining typos and weirdness is entirely me. ENTIRELY.
> 
> You can find me at [ my tumblr.](http://twistedingenue.tumblr.com)

**Author's Note:**

> This hit me as something that needed to be written and I looked around and decided that someone needed to be me.
> 
> You can follow me at [ my tumblr, twistedingenue, ](http://twistedingenue.tumblr.com) for all your nerdy needs.


End file.
